JADED LI'L JILL

"Why do we have to use detergent for my hair? My hair is getting stiff and coarse everytime I wash it with detergent. Can't I shampoo my hair everyday?"
"Detergent is good for your hair. It kills the lice before it even hatch from their eggs.If you don't stop asking silly questions, your lice will bring you on top of a lice-infested mountain!"

My mother must have had close encounters with these lice or maybe she's got a knack for weaving stories or maybe it was just my hyperactive imagination.But I end up having nightmares of Lice-landia where I will scream my lungs out till I wake up falling from my bed dripping with something called "piss".(The same detergent I use to wash my hair, will be used to wash the my beddings and pants, dripping with piss the night before.)
I must have gone tired asking the mentioned question while washing my hair with detergent. I have gotten used to it. I started to view my weekly shampoo schedule every monday as a hedonistic or self-indulgent act, that I shiver with guilt just the mere thought of it.

Then I started to hate the neighborhood girls. With their shiny long hair which is either worn down, or up in pig tails or pony tails, they are just such a pain in the neck to look at. They play all day with their "Darbie Dolls" and have picnics with their fancy tea set.

So I ended up being with the neighborhood boys. We will spend our afternoons hurling waterbombs at each other and run after one another till we are short of breath. I became one of the boys---stinking with piss ,with coarse and stiff hair and a plan to bring the neighborhood girls down to the dust.

I launched a perfect plan. I took note of the girls' pattern of activities and I found out at certain time of the day, they all go inside the host's house to powder their noses. The neighborhood boys were with me. I told them that these girls all go inside at certain time to plan on how they can conquer the grounds that we use to play wargames on. I told them that once they had possession of the grounds, the neighborhood girls will turn it into a nice little garden, where everyone is required to behave like a true lady or gentleman. And to stop that plan,we need to cut their "Darbie Dolls' " hair and scatter it all over the ground. I know that it was a fool-proof plan. The neighborhood boys agreed to do it one afternoon, the neighborhood girls were playing with their "Darbie Dolls". On cue, they ravaged on the poor dolls' hair and made sure all dolls receive the same treatment.

The scheme was carried on as planned. When the girls came back from the powder room, their dolls were as bald as Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.I made sure that the neighborhood boys were out of sight after they accomplished their mission. But I did get a nice view of what happened while I was perched on a branch of a mango tree.Their faces were as bleak as mine when my mother told me that she can't afford to buy me a "Darbie Doll."

I guess, I learned early in life that poverty and economic disparity is something that I should deal with and face squarely.